Thursday, February 14, 2008

Working Some Things Out

Thanks all for the advice. It's nice to be getting tips from the two fastest people to ever do this race. I'd be an idiot not to listen. Thanks Pete and Mike.

Got some new shoes today that I feel very happy with. Got out for a short run with them and wore them at work all day. They're Brooks Adreneline GTS 7 and unless I have some drastic problems with them in the next week they'll be the shoe I'll be wearing as I head out of Knik on the 24th. They are a full size big on me and comfortably fit 2-3 pair of socks. I also have neoprene overboots that fit nicely over them. With this setup I'm pretty sure I can keep my feet warm (as long as they are dry) in any temperatures I'm likely to encounter. I'll also have a few pairs of chemical foot insoles with me if needed.

I also bought about 13,000 calories of fat today which I plan to eat (in addition to my already increased food intake) in the next week. A gallon of ice cream; pound of bacon; 8 donuts; and 12 individual frozen pizzas. I ate two donuts after lunch, 2 pizzas just now, and I'm about to dip into the ice cream before bed.

I also received some silicone hose that I ordered in the mail today. This will replace the rubber hose I'm using for shock absorbtion on my sled. Silicone is rated to be flexible and durable down to 65 below and I was able to get two sizes which fit snugly inside of each other to increase strength. I've got a 3 day weekend coming up in which I can test out my sled some more, weed out unneccasary gear, and eat until I can't move. Should be fun.

hmm. i'm not sure trying to pack weight on post race is the way to do it. why not just eat more throughout and try to maintain you optimal body weight for the race? why drop at all? it would allow you to be training at the optimal (for this race) weight. why the "pack it on pre-race" strategy?

hey matt, in a perfect scenario you are right. Problem is that there is such a high likelihood that I will not be able to maintain a caloric intake of 7,000 or more calories per day for the 5+ days that i'll be out there. My body will almost certainly have a hard time processing that much food throughout the event and there will likely be times in which I just don't have enough food with me to eat at that rate without running out before my next food drop. if the race takes me a week i will need to consume about 50,000 calories to not have a deficit. that's almost 30 pounds of food. in my mind it's better if i can carry 3 or 4 pounds of that in the form of extra body fat, especially since there's such a high chance that my body can't continue to process that much food throughout the entire race.

Yeah Matt, this is way different than 12 and 24 hour races. Even the most seasoned vets that can down bacon and butter sticks during the race find that a pound or more of weight loss a day is almost unavoidable. On the occasional fast years where it’s merely a matter of moving along hard packed trail for 20 plus hours several days in a row, weight loss is less of an issue, but slogging, climbing, crawling, post-holing and fighting the cold along with the extended exertion will make even a fatty like MC look like Nicole Richie after a week. Every added calorie Jeff can pack around his protruding ribs could mean the difference between making it to the next checkpoint or turning into a bonked out frozen skeleton somewhere on the course. Pack it on skinny.